The CDS Catacombs

The Confederation of Democratic Simulators has many places worth seeing. Some are plainly obvious such as the Praetorium where official business by the government is done. But some are well hidden. Last month, I was shown around one notable hidden area, the Catacombs, by Lilith Ivory. So was it simply just dusty passages, or was there more?

Read the story in Places.

News In Brief

There's a lot going on in Second Life. But between the Relay, the SLB, and our upcoming anniversary, so little time to write about it. Here's a brief mention of a few things going on.


In an article in Vice magazine, Linden Lab's CEO Ebbe Altberg stated Second Life's monthly usership was close to 900,000 thousand. Ryan Schultz would point out this was a 50% increase from the days before the Coronavirus Pandemic.


There's a new Firestorm viewer out, Update 6.3.9.58205, "this one comes with a LOT of changes, bug fixes and improvements."


A few days ago, Linden Lab would announce all further US dollar transactions, not just those for cashing out Lindens to real world currency, would be handled via it's Tilia service, "to stay compliant with regulations across a number of U.S. states." Also a few days ago, the Lab announced it would be adding the Value Added Tax to transactions involving residents of Norway and Australia.


Earlier this month, Daniel Voyager reported that the Second Life app, powered by Android, was still in an "internal alpha" stage of development, "This is a communications only app, for now." There's no date as to when a public beta will be out, Ebbe Linden recommending for now the web-based Speedlight.


Yours truly was also given a tour of the CDS Catacombs, located at Colonia Nova (78,108,22). Mermaid Celene (CeleneHighwater Resident) of the Radegast Viewer group met up with me to discuss "Silver Economy," which blind SL users can take part in. After a tip from a friend about "a free downloadable board game ... based around making fun of the toilet paper shortages," I had a talk with the maker, Wanders Nowhere.


We'll have more on some of these when time permits.

Bixyl Shuftan

The Catacombs of Paris

Arrete! Cestici Lempire De La Mort. (Stop! Here lies the Empire of Death.) These are the words that greet you at the entrance of The Catacombs of the Paris  1900 sim. More noted for it's Eiffel Tower and depiction of Paris at tne dawn of the 20th Century, the sim also boasts having this more macabre attraction based on it's real life counterpart. Recently hired Britty Bee went down and braved the spooky passages, describing the erie sights and sounds, "frightening scenes that would terrify even the most seasoned explorer."

Read Britty's article in Places.